Any March & April 05 mums/moms want to chat?

[Colesmom]

herbst99  wow, that's very cool that you put her right down in the tub.  I guess people do take their infants swimming don't they.  I'll have to look into that.

Andrea You quit your job :?:  :!:  What did you do?  Was this coming or did you do it out of the blue?  good for you if it's better for your sanity    I am really hoping not to go back to my previous job...it's terrible.  I was a mutual fund accountant (yawn) and the busiest part of our day is from 4:00-6:30!  Not good in terms of daycare that's for sure.

I had a Eureka moment today.  I was in the shower just now pondering our schedule and I'm hoping a perfect day to go like this:

6:15 E (stay with me-i know this doesn't seem ideal)
6:45 A
8:00 S 1.5 hours
9:30 A
10:15 E
10:45 A
11:30 S 1.5 hours
1:00A
2:15 E
2:45 A
3:15 S 1 hour
4:15 A
6:15 E
6:45 S

with wakings around 10:15 and maybe 4:15am to feed.

I have analyzed my logs to death and it seems 6:45pm is the best bed-time (as mentioned above earlier today).  Optimal A times appear to be 1.75, 2, 2.25 and 2.5.  The only wrench in my plans is that I'm not sure if the morning nap is too early-I am the one afterall who said to try to stick with the schedule...but this could be DSs schedule.  Of course I know I need some flexibility in there.  In the event of short naps I'll go with a 6:15-6:45 bedtime range.

I just had the perfect wind down to catnap.  read books 5 min., vacuumed 5 min, walked outside 5 min, sang 5 min and put down 10 min. before A time ended.  He went to sleep in EXACTLY 10 min.  He does cry and fuss a bit...but some babies do that though, right?  I think if I put him down just before A time ends he ends up taking 10 minutes anyway.

okay, gotta go start some kind of dinner.

Wish me luck tonight.  Hoping the early bedtime eliminates the long night wakings!

Traci

[Little Bear's Mum]

Andrea Good on you, if you're jobs not what you want to be doing, then if you don't have to do it, why bother???!!!! Are you going to go for something different or be a SAHM?

Traci Sounds like you've ended up with a routine that ours usually ends up looking like. I just put Daniel to be after 1 1/2 hours awake (that I knew about) and he went down without a murmer, just a couple of minutes playing with his rabit in the cot then next time I checked he was asleep. I'm not sure if he'll do the 1 hour sleep that I hope he will, it may only be 40mins. I'm still trying to work out if he's best up 1h30m, 1h45m or closer to 2h for his first wake up. Interesting about the 20mins earlier at bedtime. If it works for you and Cole, I might have to give it a go. Keep me posted on how your routines working out.

Judy - you'll have to do an Avatar of all your lo's. Not that I've got anything there yet, maybe I'll sort that out soon.

My good news is I think Daniel is getting back on track with his sleeps. Last night he only woke once at about 11.45pm for a feed. He made noises at about 4am, but I left him, closed my door and we both fell asleep again. I woke again a bit later, but there was no noise, so I opened our door so I'd hear his morning chatter to wake me. He then slept until 6.15am. And he wasn't hungry at all. Went down for his first nap without feeding. I offered it to him 3 times, took a couple of sups, but that was it. I think this means he doesn't really need the middle of the night feed, but I don't want to push that yet, I'll try to reduce his time feeding first.

Hopefully the homeopathic remedy will be arriving in the post today for his reflux. Meanwhile, I keeping on his Losec aswell, now I know what happens when I take him off. NO SLEEP FOR MUMMY!!!

Well, I better go and get ready for whatever the day has in store for me. PJ's just won't look good hanging out the washing in!

 :lol:

[james030405]

Hi Colesmum - Ialso get into the bath with James.  He is such a wriggly worm (or a Koala bear as I call him as he climbs everywhere) that it is much easier for me to be in there with him than trying to hold him.  I think this is where he practices a lot of his "new moves".  Before he was rolling on the floor, if I had him on his stomach in the bath (holding him under his arms) he would twist around so he was in the sitting position.  He also practice sitting before he sat on the floor and he now sits unsupported (with only a couple of pillows around him).  I do on occassion bath with him without dh at home.  I just carefully hold onto him as I stand up (you could always let the water out while you are in the bath), place him on the floor wrapped in a towel and then I get dressed. 

James also does swimming lessons.  He has been doing it since he was 3.5mths old.  He really enjoys it (well I think he does) .  He now goes under the water and only comes up very rarely spluttering. 

In regards to our sleep, Sunday night he slept from 7-7 last night he only woke once at 3.30am for a feed.  He is still asleep at 6:45am.  I find with our wind downs, we just stand in the living room having cuddles and he watches our dog.  I then put him down to bed and he just needs a little bit of help and then he is asleep usually around 6:45/7pm.  I cannot ever see james going down without his mantra cry.   

Anyway, enough from me today, hope everyone has a lovely day.

Lisa - mum to James
My textbook/spirited koala bear

[kq]

Wow this thread sure moves fast!!!
Andrea-what will you do now? SAHM? Good for you
Judy-sooo glad that you are getting some sleep now!

Had to laugh about the baths and how everyone does it so differently! DH gives Sam his bath every evening. It is their time and they both seem to love it. I hear giggles and lots of chatting and I do not intrude. This has been the case since Sam was born! I do occasionally bathe Sam is dh is working late. He is fully immersed with just his face above water. He loves his head in the water and fusses and cries if we try and sit him up. He stays in it for as long as possible and that usually means 20-30 minutes. It is a great way to use the evening A time without being too stimulating.

As far as sleeps go, extending A time has worked really well in extending naps but Sam seems to be able to stay awake for quite a long time-2 hr 20 this morning. Sam has seemed to have dropped all night feeds and goes from 7 pm till 6 or 7 am in the morning. Exception: this morning at 1.30 am. I patted him for 30 minutes and he went back to sleep but woke again after 15 minutes so I fed him. He looked surprised to be fed but took it anyway. I woke this morning to find an enormous poopy nappy and I guess that was what he was trying to tell me! :oops: Oh well, we live and learn. It was sooo unexpected as he pooped 2 days ago and usually does not poop for another week.

Anyway, must dash. Have a really good day all.
Karen

PS: Pleased that James is getting better and you are getting back on track! I dread the day that Sam gets sick

[Colesmom]

just put DS down at 6:08pm.  He seemed very tired after only a 30 minute catnap ending at 4.  I figure he'll settle for about 2:15-2:30 A time.

fingers crossed for the night ahead!

Edit:  okay, regardless of being tired he still held out until 2:30 A time.  valuable lesson learned:  Regardless of last nap I'll still put him down for 2:30 A. 

How long do you guys hold your los at the end of wind down?  After singing while walking upstairs to his room I sit in the glider in the dark room for a minute or so.  Tell him it's time to sleep, I love him and I'll see him when he wakes up.  Then I stand up, kiss him and put him down.  He is always WIDE awake.  There is no drowsy with this boy.  Anyone else experience the same thing?  Just wondering if I should try putting him down closer to 2:28 A instead of 2:15-2:20 giving him his required time to settle.  I thought I read somewhere though that if you hold them too long they have trouble making it through the 30 and 45 minute transitions :?   there have been a couple of very rare instances since training started that he went to sleep without some kind of crying...maybe i'll look back in my notes and see what kind of magic i applied that day

[Jayri]

Oh crap looks like I didn't get any notifications lately either, the last page I knew of was 46.
Well the storm we were all expecting fell apart on the way here, so all we got was a ton of rain.
Riley is doing well at night, for 3 nights now she has slept from her df at 11 and then thru till 8am.
We found that damn tooth that she has been teasing us with the bottom right one is starting to show below the gums.
We have also been tied up with Jayson, je dropped a board on his big toe on the weekend, and we have had him in twice to the docs to have it drained.
Well when I have more time I will have to sit down and read the 4 pages that I missed. But overall it sounds like everyone is doing well.
Welcome to everyone who is new, sorry I didn't get anyones name as I am so way behind on this thread it isn't funny.
Must dash the season premiere of csi miami os on tonight I think, but I have been pretty stunned lately so I may be wrong.
Take Care everyone
TTFN

[kate585]

How funny is this?  We took Ryan for his 6 month portraits last week at Sears.  They turned out cute and we could get a lot, since they're pretty inexpensive.  Then, I found a coupon for a free sitting and free 8 x 10 at the Picture People ($$$) since they were having some contest.  I figured we could never have too many cute pictures of my baby boy, right?  Well, today I found out Ryan won the contest for babies this week!      It only means that he had the cutest picture out of a few other babies, but we get about $60 in free pictures out of it.  We keep laughing at him and calling him our little award winner.  Don't worry, I'm not going to start joing baby contests all over the place...just wanted a free picture, really.  Thought you'd all get a kick out of it. 

Other than that, things are going well.  He took 3 HUGE naps today (2 x 2hrs. and 1 x 1.5 hrs!) so I am really worried about tonight's sleep.  (Please do not start throwing imaginary things at me if you have a 45 minute napper.  We've had a really rough week with general fussiness and refusing to nap when not at home).  He usually sleeps through the night, but with that amount of day sleep we could be in trouble. 

Must run...my aunt is visiting on business and should be getting back from her evening meeting.  So fun to have some of MY family around for a change!

[Little Bear's Mum]

Traci, our wind down cuddles are pretty short. Normally the last 15 mins before nap time includes a story then walking around the house and ending in his room. Change nappy if needed, don't usually do this though at this time, then maybe another 1minute story in his room. All this time I'm holding him. Sing Twinkle Twinkle L Star, close curtains and into bed. We don't actually sit for cuddles at all. Daniel seems to know when we sing TTLS it's bed time and he snuggles into my shoulder and rubs his eyes. At this stage he doesn't want to just sit with me, he gets wormy.

Daniel had a 40min nap thismorning, so was hoping for a bigger middle of the day. After 2h 20m up I thought we'd be fine. But not exactly, he woke after 40 mins, then babbled away for 10 mins, just dropped off again, and the air siren went off at midday (does everyday) then he woke again, dropped back off again for another 30 mins. So it ended up okay, just a bit interrupted. The good thing was that I was able to leave him and he resettled all by himself.

The homeopathic remedy arrived today and I've just given it to him. I wonder if anything will change. I hope so! I'm not sure what I'm expecting but some improvement of less spilling or longer sleeps would be fabulous!

Daniel's just beginning to realise if he moves his legs when he's on his tummy he might soon be able to move somewhere. He's trying to get his legs underneath him and I can see he's gettin gso frustrated, but giving it a good go. Yay, this is some improvement on hating tummy time.

OMG.... I just had a break from writing this to play with Daniel and then look after my friends little 8 week old. Anyway..... while we were playing Daniel rolled from his tummy to his back all by himself! This is the first time.         And it was quite intentional, by the look of what he was doing at the time, not just an accident. Of course, when I put him back on his tummy he grizzled and wanted cuddles. So he got lots of them!

Better go, Daniels down for a sleep so I'm going to have a nap too!

[Taylor's Mommy]

Hi Everyone!  After getting caught up last night I had another 2 pages to read tonight.  Wow we are chatty ladies! :wink:
Anyhow, Kate 585, congrats on your cutie winning an award, and no I will not throw darts at you!

Judy-it was so funny I was going to post the same thing asking about who your Avatar was-someone read my mind!  In all of your spare time you should update it so we can see all 4 of the girls.

Arwyns Mom-glad to hear you're going more with the flow for naps.  I think it will make you guys happier.  I agree though with the first nap being so important.  Yesterdya she only slept for 1 hour for her 1st nap and then ended up having short naps the rest of the day and then needed an hour catnap at 6 pm!  She still went down by 8 though and settled fine.

Jo-I would def. treat the early morning feed as a night feed because I read in some other book that if you play with them they will quickly get accustomed to that beign the start of the day.

Little Bears Mum-I wonder if your lo is teething?  I hope the homeopathic stuff works out for you.  My SIL went to a baby chiropractor for nephews reflex and it was gone within 2 months as opposed to the 6 months diagnosis the ped. said.

Lisa-glad your lo is doing better!

Traci-I have got to get that book!  It sounds great and the quotes you listed make a lot of sense and are encouraging.  I think a little bit of fussing is quite normal before bedtime, so don't worry.  In fact in the American Academy of Pediatrics book it says fussing of up to 20 min. before bed is totally normal.

 :arrow: So like I said I QUIT today!!  I work for St. John (we just recently hired Angelina Jolie to be our spokesmodel!!!), a clothing company in california and I actually love my job a lot as an Account Manager.  But it does require frequent trips to NYC and a lot of long hours and an hour commute both ways every day.  So I decided to stay hoem but I will be working for/with DH a few hours a day with his business.  He started his own company this year as a Network Engineer, and it has gone better than expected.  But now he can't grow it any larger because he is too busy doing paper work when he should be out working, so I will help him with that!  I am very excited but also NERVOUS about $$$$ :?  :?   I have faith though that we will make it work!

my next post I am going to list Taylor's schedule, as aside from a few night wakings once or twice a week, overall it is working out well for us.  We just recently changed her bedtime routine and made her bedtime at 8 pm and it seems to have helped.
But for now this post is too long and I have to go to bed!  Have a good night everyone!
Andrea

[Arwyn's mom]

Wow, I think I joined the busiest thread on the board!!! I last posted 3 pages ago but it was only 24 hours ago :!:  :shock:

Andrea... congrats on the new job  :wink:  Don't worry, where there's a will, there's a way. I wish I could do the same. I have an IT hubby too but he works for a company, not himself... other than the stuff on the side... and that doesn't keep him busy enough to hire me.  :cry:

Sorry if I don't respond to everybody individually... I don't mean to offend anybody... by the time I read all the posts, sometimes I can only remember little points.

It sounds like we are all doing well and our little ones are learning new tricks! Arwyn started to creep backwards today. I swear it is because she saw her little friend at the drop-in crawling back and forth this morning.

Arwyn likes her rice cereal! I wasn't going to try again today but when she woke from her 40 minute nap  :roll: I was in the middle of my lunch. I was finishing off my soup and she just STARED at me spooning it into my mouth. So, I thought, let's give it a try again. She finished the whole serving! I couldn't believe it. She was so diligent and patient (with me smearing the stuff everywhere). I did make the consistency a little thicker, using 3.5 tbsps water instead of 4. She almost finished a whole serving tonight too! Anyways, guess she is officially starting solids now.

[Taylor's Mommy]

Arwyn's mom-thanks for the note of encouragement!  DH worked for the same bad/ungrateful company for 9 years :evil:  all the while I was trying to get him to quit.  and then I got pregnant and that finally get him teh incentive he needed!  I told him I should have done this a long time ago!

anyhow, just wanted to write that I'm glad cereal going well...I am getting very anxious to try it with Taylor so soon may be asking you for tips!

[Little Bear's Mum]

Arwyn's mum - well done with the solids. I'm going to try Daniel again on them soon, hopefully we'll have more luck this time, as they say, 3rd time lucky.

Taylor's mum - can't wait to see your routine. Can you include what you do for your wind downs before naps and bedtime. I'd be interested to see if there's anything in there that might help us.

I've tried something a little different with Daniel tonight. I normally feed him in his room in near darkness, but he falls asleep (or nearly) so quickly. So I fed him in the lounge. This time, he didn't get sleepy until right near the end of the second side. It was much more efficient feeding, not the usual suck suck stop, suck suck stop that he usually moves to pretty quickly. I then took him through to his room, sat for about 2 mins in the chair in the dark giving him cuddles then put him in bed. We don't usually use his music to go to sleep with, but tonight I thought I'd use it just to help him incase he needed it. He was wide awake when I put him down, but no crying yet. Maybe his full tummy and going down wide awake might help him sleep longer! I guess I'll know over the next 12 hours.

Daniel also slept for 1h 20m for his mid afternoon nap. Normally after the middle of the day nap, he would only do a 30 min cat nap, but today he was tired at 2hours awake time, so put him down at 2.40pm and he slept until 4pm! He woke after 30 mins, and I'd just dropped off to sleep on the couch. I left him for a couple of minutes as he wasn't crying, and he must have fallen back to sleep - just like me! Yay for us both having a good nap. I know I feel better for it.  :lol:

Jo, when Daniel was waking between 5-6am I originally went with how awake he was and played with him. Then I thought how silly that was as it was far too early, so about 3-4 mornings of putting him back to bed straight after feeding and he seemed to get the message. It's not very often he wakes between this time now, but if he does I usually now leave him and he goes back to sleep.

As you can see, I've got time on my hands to write lots, hubby's cooking dinner and lucky for me I'm a fast typist. But enough of my ramblings...

[BiancaB]

Hello to everyone
WOW over 50 pages---this is a very busy board!
Things have settled back to normal again for us, after a really long GROWTH SPURT...3 days! I was just about to panic when my milk supply must have finally caught up! So the 6 mth GS is a big one, she was waking every 3 hrs during the night and feeding almost every 2 again during the day!!!

I haven't started solids yet..I know, I'm probably way behind the 8 ball but she isn't sitting by herself yet and I'm a bit of a believer in timing solids with the first tooth... Took her to the health nurse this week and she is right on target for her weight etc so seems to be doing well without for now.

had to laugh reading all the bath stories..With Ky I was sooo paranoid about water in his ears etc, but with Si I am so much more relaxed, even let DH put her head under in the shower, hopefully she won't be so sensitive about this when she is older...as KY is NOT at all keen!

Take care Bianca

[Colesmom]

I love reading about the experiments with solids as I'm gearing up to start at the six month mark!  I've recently pestered all my girlfriends with older babies for their books/recipes on the subject.

Let me tell you about my night.  It was great until I messed up this morning.  Fed DS at 5:30 last night, bed by 6:30.  He slept until 1:30am!!!  yay for me that I went to bed at 9:30.  I got up and checked on him at 11:30 because DH came in worried he was supposed to wake me for DF.  I'm not doing DF anymore, just letting him wake when he's hungry. I then hoped he'd go until 6:30.  Hmmm, he lasted until 5:15.  This is where my problem started.  He wasn't crying too much, and would try to settle back again and again.  I let him fuss until 6:00..then got him up.  Fed him and tried to put him back down-no go.  So I had him up until 8:00 am trying to get as close to 9 as possible.  So it's been 3 days now DS has been up 2.75 hours for the first interval :shock:   In retrospect I should have gotten up to feed one boob, and he likely would have dropped back off until 6:30 or 7.   I am just hoping he has a decent nap.  I'll have to force him back to sleep because i am positive he's so wired that he'll wake at 45 min.  If we can make it to 9:30 then our day will be on track...

anyway, i'm off to grab a hot cup of tea.  i don't think there will be much chance for me to sleep this morning helping with the nap extension...

have a good one girls!

traci

[Jayri]

Man I really need to keep up on this thread. I went to sleep and woke up to another 2 pages :shock:
I guess everyone is busy trying to keep up with the 6mth mark.
Riley is doing good on her cereal, she had rice and banana this morning, haven't tried her on veggies that will probably be at the end of the month. Nights are fairly good, she woke for a 6am feed this morning but it is still better than 4am.
Well I just wanted to check in with everyone and say hi!, I will have to make sure I sit down and read up on everyone sometime soon. I have a freiand who has moved in with us for a while so time is not really on my side.
TTFN